Edge of Darkness ~ A Darkness & Light Novel Book Three Page 15

  She softened her focus, trying to open herself to the currents of magic that might be there.

  "What does it look like to you?" she asked Ferris.

  "Dark and seething," he said, his expression tight. "Much moves here. All of it malevolent."

  "Will we need to cross it?" Ciara asked.

  "A corner of it, aye." Ferris cast a glance at the sky. "I prefer to do so while we still have the light."

  He was here.

  Ciara startled at Andrakaos's voice in her head. "Donovan?"

  Ferris's brow wrinkled. "Pardon?"

  "Is he still here?"

  No.

  "M'lady?"

  Ciara gave a distracted wave of her hand to quiet the Sciath, realizing only then, she had questioned Andrakaos out loud. "Are you still at Nisair?"

  Impatience rolled from him. You should not have to ask.

  "You could just answer."

  I am.

  "You're at Nisair? Or you're answering?"

  Both. Andrakaos inhaled deeply as he scented the breeze like a hound, and Ciara's head tipped of its own accord, her nostrils flaring as she drew in the heavy odor of earth and grass. Something different tangled within the familiar. Colder. Darker. It reached deep into the ground. Rose up again. Old magic. Dark power. Those who slept no longer do so.

  Ciara's arm jerked and she whipped her head around. Ferris had moved his horse close to hers, and leaned from his saddle to grip her by the elbow. He released her slowly, settling back down, his expression unreadable.

  "You looked about to fall off," he said.

  They watch, Andrakaos said.

  "Who?"

  Those who no longer sleep. A flush of anger and frustration assaulted her. I am forbidden to leave.

  Another emotion trickled across the link they shared. Something so unlike Andrakaos that Ciara's breath caught. "Are you afraid?"

  She expected a derisive snort, and when it didn't come she waited, tense and uncertain.

  "Andrakaos?"

  No. I do not fear. I am… I cannot come to you should those who no longer sleep take interest. We are one but we have never acted apart.

  Ciara pulled her focus back to Ferris. "Andrakaos thinks we're in danger."

  The Sciath's brow furrowed. "Your gy'lafrei? He's left Nisair, then?"

  "No. He said he's forbidden to."

  The Sciath's brows arched in the opposite direction. "And you were just conversing with him?"

  "Yes. He says 'those who no longer sleep' are watching us. He's worried they're going to attack us."

  "Well they might." Ferris scowled as he swiveled in the saddle to look around.

  "I can put up a ward," Ciara said.

  Ferris shook his head. "That would certainly draw them to us. Best just to make haste for High House."

  "How far away is it?"

  "A few leagues yet."

  They cannot hold me here against our will. Barely controlled fury rippled beneath Andrakaos's words.

  "Don't do anything," Ciara said. She made a vague gesture skyward when Ferris looked a question at her. "We'll be fine."

  I will watch.

  "Good. You'll let me know if you see anything?"

  A sigh. I should--

  "--not have to. I know. Just do. Please."

  He will know. Ferris that meant. He sees the currents that move within the otherworld.

  "M'lady." Ferris's horse danced beneath him, though he hardly seemed to notice. "We need to go."

  Ciara nodded and Ferris wasted no time. He looked back once to ensure Ciara was following, and then his black mare leapt forward into an effortless ground-covering canter that Ciara's horse matched with slightly more effort.

  They remained along the edge of the forest, only far enough into the grasslands to ensure easy footing. The sun dipped behind the trees, spreading long shadows across the landscape, before Ferris slowed and motioned Ciara alongside him.

  "We'll let the horses walk a bit." He pointed ahead of them. "There's a standing stone up a ways. From there we'll need to cut across Barrowdowns. I intend to do so at a good clip. We're being followed." He said the last with no different inflection than if he had said 'there's a rock'.

  Ciara twisted to look behind them. "By who?"

  "More of a 'what' than a 'who'," Ferris said. "Nightshades, I think. I hope. They're the least of what dwells here. So far, they seem more curious than anything. That could change rapidly. If it does, point your horse south by west and ride hard for the tree line."

  "And you?"

  He grinned. "I'll make sure they don't follow."

  Ciara shook her head. "I won't leave you to deal with them on your own."

  "They're more a pest than anything."

  "Then why should I ride hard for the trees?"

  The grin faded. "M'lady, I'm charged with your safety--"

  "And it's your duty." Ciara twisted the word. "I'm sure no one warned you, but I have a sincere dislike for that word and the actions it encourages in the men who use it. I refuse to step aside while you throw yourself in the path of potential danger for my sake and that of some misguided construct. We either face them together, or we both make for the tree line."

  "Have you ever seen a nightshade?"

  Ciara shook her head. "No. But they're just pests, right?"

  Ferris blew out a frustrated sigh. "Please believe, I've absolutely no doubt of your ability to protect yourself. It is respect that compels my actions." He rubbed his chin, face pinched in thought. After a moment he shrugged loosely. "The tree line it is, then. But should the nightshades decide not to play nice, a few things to keep in mind. They're quick. Very quick. And they chatter. Endlessly. You'll want to ignore that best you can. They'll terrify the unholies out of your horse. In fact, they'll try that first. Try to unseat you before they carry on."

  Ciara reached forward to pat her horse's neck. "Then let's hope he's a brave soul."

  Ferris gave her another of his long, searching looks, as though she was a puzzle he needed to solve. "You're a good match for him, I think."

  "My horse?"

  Ferris chuckled. "Him, as well, but I meant Lord Bolin."

  "I get the impression you know him well?"

  "Too well at times." He glanced to his right. "Here's where we start across. Good for a gallop?"

  "Lead on."

  Ferris gave her a jaunty wink, and they were off, their horses surging through the tall grass in the fading light.

  It had been a long time since Ciara had cause to ride so hard, and she found it took far more concentration than it should have. She risked a glance Ferris's way. At least, it took her far more concentration. Ferris sat high in the saddle, his focus drawn inward, obviously holding his horse back to keep it from totally outdistancing Ciara's.

  They come.

  At the same instant Andrakaos's warning reached her, Ferris's horse rolled so quickly back onto its haunches and spun, that Ciara let out a gasp, thinking it had stepped in a hole and injured itself. By the time she got her own horse slowed enough to turn it in a more conventional manner, the Sciath and his black mare were several lengths away. Ferris had reined in, but the horse continued to prance and hop beneath him. A moment later something whispered across Ciara's face. Her horse screamed, rearing back to strike out with its hooves.

  As dismounts go, Ciara had performed much more graceful ones in the past. She hastily dropped her stirrups and, when her horse went airborne a second time, she shoved backwards out of the saddle to slide from its rump and land unceremoniously on her own. Her horse whirled and took off before Ciara regained her feet.

  "Who is this?"

  "Who comes near?"

  "Who visits the sisters?"

  Figures darted around her, reaching out with bony hands, the blackened skin stretched tight across them.

  "Pretty creature."

  "Walks with the light."

  "Flirts with the dark."

  Fingers tangled in her hair and Ciara batted them awa
y as she stood. "Stop that."

  "So pretty."

  "So silky."

  "Like the spider's web."

  "What do you want?" Ciara asked, twisting to keep the ever moving nightshades in view.

  They laughed in unison at her question, spiraling skyward before dipping down again like huge, wingless hummingbirds.

  "Come play with us, sister."

  "Come dance with us."

  "Follow us home and become one with us."

  "I don't think so," Ciara said.

  "Yes. You will come."

  "Come now."

  "A present for she who calls us."

  "She who walks with us."

  "Come."

  They spiraled faster and faster in a dizzying aerial assault, whipping past Ciara, the edges of their tattered shrouds whipping across her skin, their fingers grasping at her. They latched onto her hair and tugged one way, then her sleeve and tugged in another. Ciara stumbled back, flailing her arms at them.

  A frustrated growl left her throat as the nightshades flipped and spun around her. Just as Ciara reached desperately for her magic, everything around her suddenly stopped. Not so much as a flutter of shrouds or the wave of a single blade of grass disturbed the tableau. Silence smothered the chattering of voices and jangling of harness. Ciara had just enough time to register the phenomena before the air burst like a huge bubble. The nightshades were thrown outward, their distressed wails rising in a pained crescendo before fading to nothing as they vanished.

  Ciara caught a breath in the stunned calm that followed. She sought out Ferris, and found him on one knee, arms thrust forward above his bowed head. His shoulders rose and fell in short spurts. His eyes were downcast, open, but unfocused. They slanted Ciara's way when she dropped down beside him.

  "That…was…" He pursed his lips and lowered his arms slowly to his sides, blowing out a long breath. "Difficult. More so than it should have been."

  He leaned heavily on Ciara's arm as she helped him to his feet.

  "Something drove them. Some power other than their own."

  "Are they gone?"

  "Momentarily. They will be back." He wavered, taking half a step backwards to steady himself as he looked around. "Your horse?"

  "Gone, I'm afraid," Ciara said, with a rueful look toward the dark smudge of the forest. "Not a brave a soul as I had hoped. Unlike the nightshades, I don't think he'll be back. I'm surprised yours is still here."

  A fond smile crossed Ferris's face as he walked to where the mare stood, shaking. Lather flecked her hide and her eyes were wide. He talked softly to her as he approached, his voice a low, rhythmic murmur, gaze slanted away from her. She tossed her head, eyes showing white around the edges. Ferris stopped, still not looking directly at her. She pranced a bit before tentatively reaching out with her nose to blow softly against his outstretched hand.

  "Beya has been at my side since the day she was born," he said. He stepped closer to the mare and looped an arm beneath her neck. "It would take more than a handful of nightshades to cause her to desert me. Even then, she wouldn't go far."

  He continued to whisper as he caressed the mare's neck and chest. Finally Beya's ears flicked up and the tension eased from her. When she appeared relaxed, Ferris moved from one leg to the next, running his hands down each of them in turn. Satisfied at apparently finding her uninjured, he returned to her head, gathered up the reins and mounted. Kicking his foot free of the stirrup, he reached down for Ciara.

  "Can she carry us both?" Ciara asked. No doubt the mare could run, but she hardly looked built to accommodate two.

  "Aye. We've little choice, in any case. The nightshades won't be pleased. I don't want to know what they might bring back with them on their return."

  Ciara slipped her foot into the stirrup, linked forearms with Ferris, and swung up behind him. He sat for a long moment, hands braced on his thighs, head bowed.

  Ciara laid a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure you're all right."

  He puffed out a breath and nodded. Still, it took another couple breaths before Beya started walking. Still several more before Ferris picked up the reins.

  "There was a backlash, of sorts," he said. "It caught me off-guard. Truth of the matter? I feel like I've been kicked in the chest by a horse. A very large, very angry horse."

  "I can help with that," Ciara said.

  He twisted stiffly to look back at her. "Healer?"

  "Yes. You didn't know?"

  "I should have. You've a bit of the Goddess's feel about you."

  Ciara kept her expression carefully neutral.

  "I said something wrong?"

  Obviously not neutral enough. "The Goddess and I aren't on the best of terms."

  "Ah." Ferris nodded. "That happens from time to time. There were a handful of years I wasn't on speaking terms with her myself. More than once, actually."

  "And now?"

  "An uneasy truce." He smiled past the shadow in his eyes and gave a shrug, then winced and rubbed a hand across his chest. "Unholy mothers. Ah, sorry, m'lady."

  "I've heard worse," Ciara said.

  She reached for her earth magic and let it flow from her, wrapping it about Ferris as she searched for the source of his pain. It amazed her how simple that had become. Her aunt would have been proud of her. Or, more likely, relieved that some of her instruction had finally taken root.

  For his part, Ferris proved to be the perfect patient. He relaxed into Ciara's ministrations and opened himself to her exam without reservation. She could have taken advantage of that and found the answers to many of her questions without Ferris being any the wiser, but she knew well enough how it felt to have someone prying around your head without consent, and swore she would never do that to anyone else. At least, not for such a selfish reason as simple curiosity.

  So she contented herself with healing, and nothing more, until Ferris stiffened.

  "Can you manage that while riding swiftly?" he asked, glancing back past Ciara.

  "Probably not without falling off," Ciara said.

  "Then it will have to wait. Hold tight."

  She had no more warning than that and the sudden bunching of Beya's muscles beneath them. Ciara threw her arms around Ferris's waist as the mare surged forward in a flat-out run. A screech ran across Ciara's nerves like the squeal of rusty hinges, making her teeth ache. Beya's fear bordered on panic, held in check, Ciara realized, by nothing more than the strength of the connection between her and Ferris. That alone kept the mare from pitching them both and high-tailing it after Ciara's long gone mount.

  Beya made a sudden move and Ciara suddenly felt nothing but air beneath her. She braced for a hard landing but somehow Ferris caught her by the arm and swung her so she landed on her feet. The nightshades immediately swarmed her, their robes stinging her face and hands, their fingers tangling in her hair and clothes.

  A growl from Andrakaos rose through her. He may have been confined to Nisair, but his power still flowed with Ciara's. She reached for it now. She had no clear idea what to do, or exactly how to do it. Instinct alone guided her.

  Unmake them. Instinct and Andrakaos.

  "I don't know how."

  You know all I know. We are.

  A frustrated rumble echoed Andrakaos's as Ciara batted at another of the nightshades. They laughed and chattered and danced away, haranguing her, making it impossible for her to concentrate. Then, once again, a lull in a storm. Their voices grew dim, and they no longer seemed able to reach her.

  "If you intend to do something, m'lady," Ferris said through clenched teeth, his voice strained, "now would be the time."

  He stood a short distance off, legs braced, hands down at his sides, fingers splayed, watching the nightshades from beneath his brows. Any time one of them dipped toward Ciara, one of Ferris's fingers would twitch in response, and the nightshade would veer away as though pushed by a huge hand.

  "M'lady. Now."

  Ciara sucked in a breath and reached once more for her p
ower. This time she blocked everything else from her mind, and opened herself to the currents of magic that flowed between her and Andrakaos.

  Unmake them, she thought wryly. Nothing to it.

  She watched the flitting shapes for a moment. Her arms lifted, following the motion of the erratic nightshades. In their seemingly random maneuvers, a pattern emerged. Ciara's gestures formed sigils between the nightshades, linking one to the other. As she drew them together, the nightshades stopped their hectic fluttering and Ciara forced them to be still. She twisted her wrist, making a gathering motion before her, as though bringing all the nightshades into the palm of her hand. She imagined them caught within her grasp and slowly squeezed her fingers closed.

  "What is this?"

  "What happens?"

  "Who treats us so cruelly?"

  "Release us."

  "We will call her."

  "Yes! Call her sisters. Call she who walks with us."

  "She who calls us."

  "Sister of the nightshades. Mistress of the wraiths."

  "Call--"

  A drawn out wail echoed across the grasslands as Ciara clenched her hand into a fist and the nightshades simply…

  An errant breeze pushed across her face. The touch of phantom fingers. The vague scent of dark earth. Curiosity. Desire. Hunger. Anger.

  And they were gone.

  Ciara stood unmoving until Ferris's touch on her arm drew her focus back. He guided her hand down, holding it in both of his and carefully uncurling her fingers as he did so. His eyes glittered brightly in the darkness that had settled around them.

  "We need to go," he said quietly.

  Ciara nodded, but made no attempt to suit action to words. Her legs quavered like saplings in a strong wind. She let Ferris guide her to Beya and give her a leg up. A moment later he swung up behind her with a grunt, and reached around for the reins. Then they were pounding over the rolling countryside as though the unholies were behind them.

  Ferris didn't stop Beya until the waving grass thinned and thick foliage forced the issue. The black mare stood, sides heaving and head lowered, as Ferris dismounted and then reached up to help Ciara down. Full dark settled across the countryside, making it impossible for Ciara to see much beyond the hulking shapes of trees surrounding them.